Another Exotic-Car Suitor for Saab
December 03, 2009
First it was one-off exotic-car builder Koenigsegg Group. With that deal part of history, a new one-off exotic-car maker, Netherlands-based Spyker Cars NV, formally confirmed yesterday it is talking to General Motors Co. about acquiring GM's twisting-in-the-wind Saab Automobiles.
Spyker is backed by its majority owner, Russia's Conversbank Financial Group, which owns 29.9 percent of Spyker, currently best known for its gullwing C8 Aileron sports car. Spyker reportedly has 132 employees and has sold less than 25 cars through the first half of this year. Saab currently employs about 4,500 and sold 93,000 vehicles last year.
A report in the U.K's Auto Express said Spyker plans to move its operations -- including manufacturing -- from its current headquarters in the Dutch town of Zeewolde to Coventry in the United Kingdom, by the end of the year. Coventry is the home of Spyker's largest supplier, CCP manufacturing.
Prior to resigning from GM this week, former CEO Fritz Henderson said the company would begin a structured closure of Saab if a suitable deal to sell the brand was not reached by the end of the month.
Photo by Edmunds.com's Mark Takahashi
Spyker Cars, reportedly bidding for Sweden's Saab, has a display at this week's Los Angeles auto show.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:01 PM under Companies , GM , News | Comments (2) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
I bet they're hoping to get Saab for a fire sale price, which they probably can.
Posted by: cwc1 | December 03, 2009 at 5:15 PM
Spyker must be the only car manufacturer that actually builds fewer cars than Koenigsegg. I wouldn't be too optimistic about this.
Posted by: sprocketboy | December 04, 2009 at 9:50 AM